Chapter 362: Inciting the Hearts of Men

The commoners did not know that there was a mysterious, elusive Transcendent master within Jiaopan City.

They only knew that many people of the jianghu had fled the city yesterday, and that their garrison consisted of a mere thousand soldiers.

They stared at the tightly shut North Gate, a sliver of hope in their eyes, but far more fear.

They did not know if the North Gate could truly keep those monsters outside the city.

A hundred li away from Jiaopan City, Li Hansong, who was rushing toward the city, suddenly came to a halt.

A faint, ambiguous smile played on his lips. He raised his right hand, and a snow-white lotus floated three centimeters above his palm.

The surroundings were terrifyingly silent.

It wasn’t just quiet; the surrounding space seemed to have come to a complete standstill.

Falling leaves froze in mid-air. Flowers and grass, bent by the wind, remained in their curved positions.

The entire area looked like a static painting.

Only the person within the painting could move.

Li Hansong looked up at the void and said, “Old friend, why not come out and meet me?”

A long time passed, yet Li Hansong received no response.

The surroundings remained devoid of even a whisper of sound. Had anyone else been there, they might have thought Li Hansong had succumbed to a delusion, for there was clearly no one else present.

However, Li Hansong remained rooted to the spot. He lowered his gaze, his fingers gently stroking the white lotus in his hand.

“Of those from a hundred years ago, only you and I remain. It is not too late for you to stop now,” Li Hansong sighed softly.

Still, there was no response.

Li Hansong’s expression turned slightly colder. “Since you are unwilling to show yourself, then do not block my path.”

As his voice fell, Li Hansong raised his hand and pointed a finger toward the void.

In the direction he pointed, the space rippled with a slight distortion.

A fallen leaf seemed to move, yet also seemed still.

But at the exact spot where that leaf hung, a dark shadow abruptly appeared and plummeted toward the ground.

It hit the earth with a dull thud.

Li Hansong’s expression did not flicker, but he had already seen the appearance of the dark shadow.

He sighed softly. “My little grand-disciple was determined to kill this man with his own hands. Now that the man is dead, I fear he will be quite disappointed.”

The grand-disciple he spoke of was Lian Li, and the corpse that had been tossed out was none other than Suixin Monk.

Li Hansong frowned slightly. “I did not expect you to be able to lay a hand on someone who worked so diligently for you.”

Finally, a response came. A voice manifested: “I found him useful. If your dear disciple hadn’t planted something on him, I wouldn’t have acted.”

Li Hansong did not take the bait regarding the voice’s attempt to pin Suixin Monk’s death on the West Island Master. Instead, he spoke as if to himself, “His martial arts were decent enough. I didn’t expect you to kill him directly. I thought… you would refine him into a living corpse as well. He would have at least made for a barely high-grade living corpse.”

The voice replied, “Li Hansong, the people of the world truly ought to hear these words of yours. Your sanctimonious act is utterly revolting. If the people knew that the Transcendent they revere as the head of the righteous path said such things, I fear they would be quite disappointed.”

“What I say is not important; what matters is what I do.” Li Hansong smiled faintly, remaining entirely unmoved. “As long as I do not wish it, who could possibly hear me say such things? Do you intend to rely on your own mouth to tell others? Besides, I do not care how others perceive me.”

Seeing that Li Hansong was unfazed, the other party was the one to lose their composure. “If your disciples and grand-disciples knew you were this kind of person, they would surely despise you.”

Hearing this, Li Hansong’s smile widened until he eventually let out a laugh. “Aside from that little grand-disciple, how could the others not know what kind of man I am?”

The voice stopped following Li Hansong’s lead and instead brought up the lotus in his hand.

“Give me the lotus, and Jiaopan City lives.”

He said the city would “live,” but a city itself has no life or death.

He was referring to the people within it.

Li Hansong simply looked toward the direction of the voice, his hand still toying with the lotus.

After a long silence, he finally answered, “Impossible. It is merely an insignificant city; how could it compare to me taking another step forward?”

The voice laughed—a wild, arrogant sound. “Hahahaha! Li Hansong, so you are nothing more than this. Did you all hear that?”

Li Hansong’s expression changed, as if he hadn’t expected others to be present. He struggled to maintain his composure, but his eyes darted around with a hint of panic.

A moment later, a woman dressed in a golden robe, appearing to be in her thirties, manifested in mid-air. She looked at Li Hansong with a complex expression.

“I never expected you to be such a person.”

A man clad in silver armor also appeared, glaring at Li Hansong with fury. “Li Hansong, I misjudged you.”

Finally, an elegant man in green robes holding a long sword appeared.

He looked at Li Hansong with disappointment in his eyes. For a long time, he did not say a word, only letting out a soft sigh.

Li Hansong’s face shifted through several expressions before finally returning to a state of calm.

“If you have time to corner me, you would be better off going to Jiaopan City to take a look. Two of my disciples are still there, and Xi Yu is particularly skilled in medicine, poisons, and poison-gnostics. The life and death of Jiaopan City is not decided solely by his words.”

As soon as he said this, the air around the three newly appeared figures rippled with waves of energy, betraying their anger.

Outside Jiaopan City.

The living corpses were now less than a hundred meters from the city walls.

The walls of Jiaopan City were not high to begin with. With tens of thousands of living corpses approaching, they could scale the walls simply by piling on top of one another.

Furthermore, these refined living corpses possessed immense strength. Jiaopan City had not been maintained for years; if the corpses were allowed to ram the walls without restraint, the fortifications might very well collapse.

At this moment, a martial artist standing on the wall could no longer endure the sight. He screamed, “Isn’t there a Transcendent master here? Why hasn’t he/she acted yet? Does he/she truly intend to watch an entire city of people die at the hands of these monsters?”